Important Notice

“Black is the most mysterious of all colours. Renoir found it impossible and said a spot of black was like a hole in the painting. I cannot agree: colour is now disturbing in a bad way.”
- F N SOUZA

The present lot belongs to a remarkable series of black paintings that F N Souza created between 1964 and 1965 in a brief but radical deviation from his usual practice. This was a particularly fertile creative period for the artist;... “Black is the most mysterious of all colours. Renoir found it impossible and said a spot of black was like a hole in the painting. I cannot agree: colour is now disturbing in a bad way.”
- F N SOUZA

The present lot belongs to a remarkable series of black paintings that F N Souza created between 1964 and 1965 in a brief but radical deviation from his usual practice. This was a particularly fertile creative period for the artist; in addition to these works, he also developed his Kalam series, inspired by Indian miniature art, during these years. In these works, Souza used black as a primary medium to revisit his best-known themes, such as nudes, portraits, religious imagery, and landscapes. He builds up the surface in complex tonal variations of black, sculpting his subjects in thick impasto so they seem to emerge from the dark background like bas-reliefs-a couple in case of the present lot.

Souza’s black-on-black paintings are difficult to view in person and notoriously tough to capture in print. They require viewers to engage with them from multiple angles, their full depth unveiled only under shifting light. On closer inspection, they reveal his truly exceptional draughtsmanship and the expressive intensity of his line. Recalling seeing these paintings displayed for the first time at Souza’s 1966 solo exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery, poet and friend of the artist, Adil Jussawala remarked: “Black paintings, canvas plastered- no other word comes to mind-with thick black paint, with objects and figures dug into them with the same fierce controlled energy that characterizes his best work.” (Quoted in Zehra Jumabhoy, “F.N. Souza: Dark Visions”, FN Souza Black on Black, London: Grosvenor Gallery, 2013, p. 8)

Critics remain divided on what inspired this body of work. Some see it as an homage to Francisco de Goya’s Pinturas Negras or black paintings, which Goya made towards the end of his life. Souza had a great admiration for the Old Masters, particularly Titian, Rembrandt, Goya, and Vermeer, whose works he frequently studied at the National Gallery in London. Others point to the possible influence of the monochromatic works of Yves Klein, which he likely came across at Galerie Iris Clert, Paris, where both artists exhibited in the 1950s and 1960s. Some further suggest a connection with abstract artist Ad Reinhardt who painted exclusively black canvases from 1953 until his death in 1967. His experiments with the process of painting and perception may have resonated with Souza’s own artistic vision at the time.

Though Souza himself has never clearly explained his motivations for this series, it may have been an act of rebellion against the conservatism of England’s art establishment, or perhaps a deliberate effort to compel viewers to slow down and truly see his work. Some readings also suggest a more personal dimension: a reflection of the artist’s own turbulent personal life during this period, or more broadly, the culmination of his response to the racial prejudice he faced as an artist of colour in postwar Europe. According to Zehra Jumabhoy, they appear to be “on the cusp of a dialogue about racial exclusion [...] After all, 1960s Britain was a dark place for most painters [...] If his earlier and later paintings were characterised by thick black lines, they also revelled in colour: acid yellows, harsh blues, bloody reds. By the late 1950s, and early ‘60s, however, Souza’s images were swamped by sinister shades [...] Perhaps too, Souza’s own circumstances as a ‘man of colour,’ instigated him to tune into an even gloomier facet of Post-War Britain: discrimination.” (Jumabhoy, pp. 9 - 10)

Ultimately, Souza was less concerned with the aesthetic value of art than its capacity as a medium to plumb the depths of the human experience. As theatre director and gallerist Ebrahim Alkazi once wrote, “Souza’s art is not concerned with representation verisimilitude, with questions of style or tradition, with problems of nationalism or modernism. His fundamental aim is to destroy art as it is commonly understood and to re- create it in terms of a Black Mass in which the living God is eaten, so that through this primitive and barbarous rite, man may partake of his eternal spirit and embody in himself its resurrection.” (Ebrahim Alkazi, “Souza’s Seasons in Hell”, Patriot Magazine, 4 January 1987)

Read More
Artist Profile
Other works of this artist in: this auction  |  entire site